Plant specialists at Bayer use the term “crop efficiency” to describe all the different areas they are working in to systematically optimize the yield potential of crops through research in technologies such as breeding, traits, chemistry, and biologicals. Raphael Dumain, Global Head of Crop Efficiency at Bayer, explains their goal: “We want to strengthen plants from the inside out so that they can successfully cope not only with pests and diseases, but also with unfavorable environmental conditions, such as stress and nutrient-poor soils.” Building on past successes in biological seed treatment to control pests and diseases, the focus in present-day biological research is increasingly on exploring new means of boosting crop yields from the available farmland – to help feed a growing global population.

Bayer scientists are also exploiting the symbiotic relationships between plants and microbes to optimize not just nutrient uptake but also a crop’s genetic potential to boost grain numbers and yield. Inserting these beneficial microorganisms into a seed treatment is a unique challenge. “The interactions between microbes and plants are often much more complex than we think,” says Dr. Magalie Guilhabert, Head of Crop Efficiency for Biologics Research at the Bayer facility in West Sacramento, California.

“As a result, the positive effects from laboratory tests cannot always be simply transferred to large-scale field studies.” Her team is employing sophisticated genetic, physiological, analytical, and bio-statistical tools, as well as state-of-the-art modeling and machine-learning techniques to better understand the processes in beneficial microorganisms and their interactions with crop plants. “In our greenhouses, we are screening microbes in novel ways to learn about how microbes grow and form an intimate relationship with a plant – in order to find the best leads,” Magalie adds.

Bayer’s ability to discover valuable new genes from bacteria has been greatly increased by recent advances in automation and bio-informatics that have given scientists the means to handle a great number of bacterial strains and learn more about their functionality through their genetic codes. With some 116,000 bacterial strains and, on average, 5,000 genes per organism, Bayer scientists have a vast library of over half a billion genes to choose from. In 2015, work began on sequencing the genomes of the entire collection and, early in 2017, a robot began automatically storing, removing, and preparing the microbe samples for testing – tasks previously done manually. Instead of scientists preparing 1,500 strains a week by hand, the robot manages 1,700 strains a day! The return on this considerable investment will be a huge increase in the speed at which innovations emerge.